


What's in a name?

by digitalsoop



Category: Free!
Genre: F/M, Post Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-26
Updated: 2015-03-26
Packaged: 2018-03-19 17:10:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3617694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digitalsoop/pseuds/digitalsoop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sousuke and Gou have a chat about names.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What's in a name?

“Makoto’s been referring to you as Sousuke now.” Gou stuck her spoon into her cup of ice cream, watching his face for some kind of reaction. He let out an Ah of acknowledgement and took a bite of his popsicle. “It made me really happy, actually.” 

“Why?” 

Gou picked up her spoon, pausing to think of an answer. “Because you’re making friends.” 

He grunted. “Don’t worry about that stuff.” 

“That’s impossible! Your sour expression scares everyone away, Sousuke-kun. You can’t go through life like that.” Her teeth clicked against her spoon. He shook his head and devoted his full attention to finishing his ice cream. Gou hurried to scoop hers into her mouth before it all melted. 

He turned the blue-stained stick over between his fingers, and pressed it between his teeth. “Why do you still use -kun with my name?”

“Huh? Because you’re Sousuke-kun.” Her spoon tapped against her paper cup. 

“Just Sousuke is fine, though. I don’t use -chan with your name.” 

“Well, yeah, but you’re older than me so you can call me what you want.” 

Sousuke turned his popsicle stick over a few more times while Gou scrapped up every last bit of vanilla chocolate chip she could. She dropped her spoon into her cup, and he dropped his stick next to it. “Koneko-chan then.”

“What?” 

“I can call you what I want, so I’ll call you Koneko-chan.” 

“That’s—no, you can’t use that!”

“I see. Just Koneko is good, right?” 

“N-no!” 

“Koneko-yan.”

“The suffix isn’t the problem here!” She smacked her knees and kicked her feet, ears bright red. Sousuke held his breath, and his laughter. “How would you like it if I called you that?” 

“That would be okay, but it would get confusing if we had the same nick name.” He folded his hands on the table and let Gou shake her fists and wrack her brain for a suitable come back. 

“K—Kuma—,” she faltered and her blush spread to her cheeks. “Kuma-ko.” 

“Koneko-yan.” 

“Kuma-ko!” 

“Ko—ne—ko—yan.” 

Gou stood up with a huff, putting both of her hands over his mouth. He raised his voice to make up for being muffled. “Just Gou is fine!”

He put a hand over hers, insisting that just Sousuke was fine too, then, but she shook her head. “You can call me Sou-yan.” 

“I really can’t!” 

He pulled her hands away. “Koibito, then.” 

They stared at each other, until Gou’s hands started to shake and she backed away with a muffled screech, smacking her hands over her face. “You’re the worst!” 

He stood up, laughing. “I’ll always be Sousuke-kun, then, huh?” 

“There’s nothing wrong with being Sousuke-kun,” she grumbled. She dragged her hands down her cheeks, letting them rest on her neck. “It’s important.” 

“But if I asked seriously, would you call me something else?” 

Gou pursed her lips, her fingers cautiously rubbing behind her ears. “I’ll think about it.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I did absolutely no research to see if Sousuke really doesn't use a suffix with Gou, but that's what my memory told me and I'm not gonna argue with it. 
> 
> In case you don't know. Koneko: kitten. Kuma: bear. Nicknames are hard.


End file.
